Postponing a Tribunal Hearing – 3rd Time You May Be Out

Occasionally postponements are used to unsettle the other party. The main drawback of postponements is the lost time, the need to rearrange appointments and the waste of tribunal time and accommodation if a new case can not be slotted into the gap. Three Strikes and Out The number of times an employer or claimant can […]

Results Based Commission to be Included in Holiday Pay

Posted on 25/02/2016 by HR Professional The Employment Appeal Decision in British Gas Trading v Lock means that results based commission must be paid during holiday periods.   You can read more about the implications of the court decision in this link to an earlier article. {Editor’s note – new link to be added]. Employers now […]

Zero Hours Contract Workers – New Rights

Posted on 13/01/2016 by HR Professional   [Link updated 06/09/2019]   Zero hours are defined broadly as being a contract or arrangement under which an employer may offer or provide work for an individual but there is no certainty that such work will be made available.  Such contracts are a useful means of covering seasonal […]

Bargaining Cap on Compensatory Awards in Unfair Dismissal Cases *

If you become involved in a negotiation over a package to settle a dismissal, the new cap may help you to focus the parties on a realistic settlement figure. From 29th July 2013, a cap has been set on the compensatory award in unfair dismissal cases – but not all cases will be covered. The […]

Termination of Employment Agreements – simplification

Rather than simplify the process for holding discussions about a termination situation, the law has become more complicated. From 29th July, compromise agreements will be renamed as settlement agreements and a new process for holding pre-termination discussions will be introduced. The latter is to enable discussions to take place about a potential termination situation but […]

Industrial Action – plan your responses in case you are caught up or caught out

When the economic climate is troubled, industrial action tends to increase due to several factors – differing political views, general uncertainty, frustration and accentuated problems within organisations.  You can be caught up by such action even though your organisation is not a target.  For example, delivery drivers and service engineers may encounter picket lines when […]

Simplifying Employment Rights and Law

The law relating to unfair dismissal was the starting point – the emphasis being on the right not to be unfairly dismissed. Employers and employees realized that dismissals would be deemed fair but not if substantive or procedural points were ignored. However, today we have ended up with a complex maze of law in which […]

Reducing red tape or increasing distrust – simplification of employment law

From April this year, key changes will be made to employment law which on the surface are designed to make matters easier for employers and to reduce costs. Are we witnessing over simplification and building up issues for ourselves?  Let us examines some of the issues. Reduced Use of Lay Members In Unfair Dismissal Cases […]

Retirement Age Lives On

How will you handle staff retirement planning in your workplace? From April 2011, the Government will remove the idea of a normal retirement age at which an employer can require staff to leave. Will that be a major problem for most employers? That is unlikely in view of the following points Sharing/discussing retirement plans is […]